Features and Payment Gimmicks

It doesn’t happen often because I don’t talk about my website or comic much outside of, say, this blog, but several people ask me how I make money from the work I do. Honestly, I … I don’t. I almost don’t want to, it would seem redundant in a way. I’m already doing what I like, which is working on something creative and getting it done. Being the thinky-type person, I’ll admit I have thought about it.

Some time back, I watched a video of a panel from Intervention, moderated by Rob Balder of Erfworld about making money through websites, and webcomics. I don’t remember all the points they touched on, which might advocate watching the video yourself, but I remember some highlights: regular-donation models, pay walls between free and for-pay content, book and merchandise sales. I’m sure there were others.

The panel mentions that it’s a terrible idea to yank free content from people and make them pay for it, or to hold content hostage until payment is reached — those sorts of things drive people away and create an unrealistic sense of entitlement. Goblins: Life Through Their Eyes has Tempts Fate, an auxiliary project wherein the eponymous character’s success is fueled by reader donations.

I don’t know what I’d do, but I thought something along the lines of Tempts Fate might be fun and maybe even plausible for someone with my particular foibles. I thought it might be fun to establish a couple groups of competing adventurers to run against each other, and give readers the option to bit on the success of one group or scenario over another. There are some obvious problems, but it’s still just a thought now anyway.